I love being out in the woods! I like this quote from Mors Kochanski - "The more you know, the less you carry". I believe in the same creed, & think "Knowledge & honed skills" are the best things to carry with ya when you're out in the wilds. They're the ultimate "ultralight" gear!

I am hoping my initiation will be in two weeks. I don't think I'll be documenting it, but myself and a couple of other guys are going to jointly give it a shot.

Punty I'm sure you will be successful in your friction fire endeavor. Now that you have set your mind to it you will get your fire by this acient method. I think the biggest hurdle is just deciding to go for it.

The two things that took me the longest to make the kit was first making a bow to run the spindle. I wanted something that not only worked well but would last as part of a long term kit. Finding the right wood and the perfect branch, cutting it down took about as long as carving out the bow in this picture. I used the tool I will normally have with me on a long hike or backpack, a small thin blade. With other essentials I like to keep the load nice and light as possible.

The bearing has always been one of the more difficult pieces until I found that shell. That really changed things, freed up the spindle speed. The rest of the kit, the base board and the spindle went very quickly.

Getting a flame after setting it all up took less than a minute. I really think anyone can do this if they find workable materials. I'm going down to the river tomorrow and find some long thin spindle material and try another hand drill. I know some plants that are just perfect for hand drills or bow drill spindles. Time to get some more calluses built up. LOL

So a few nights I go I attempted my second bow drill fire. My first I tried a few years ago and was unsuccessful. I think it may of had something to do with my dog taking my spindle when I went to go looK for a branch to make the bow.

So I was hiking and found a nice piece of sugar maple, Soni cut a piece off and brought it home.

Then I went to work on it.

Carved the bark off and set it asside. And began splitting

Once that was done, I carved my spindle, hearth board and such.

Then I began to spin up a coal. As I was working the bow it was smoking good, but the string began to ride high near the bearing block. So I decided to stop and reposition and the ember was smoking, so I decided to blow on it slightly.

I was going to grill that evening, so I decided to make the fire in my gril.

I couldn't get a pic of me blowing the ember to a flame, bease in was blowing the ember to flame. I had a small bird nest of cedar bark. If that makes this not count, then so be it. I know I did it and it was freaking awesome!!

So when I hit the button to join the "Friction Fire Fellowship" there isn't a prompt or anyplace to say what post #. Like in my case it was post #508 i think.

I checked your profile and it looks like you are part of the FFF member group already when I am logged in as an Admin, but it doesn't show up when logged in as a regular member. I made the FFF your primary member group and moved your supporting member group to the additional groups category. Let me know if everything still works as it should with your account and if not, we will try a different approach.

So when I hit the button to join the "Friction Fire Fellowship" there isn't a prompt or anyplace to say what post #. Like in my case it was post #508 i think.

I checked your profile and it looks like you are part of the FFF member group already when I am logged in as an Admin, but it doesn't show up when logged in as a regular member. I made the FFF your primary member group and moved your supporting member group to the additional groups category. Let me know if everything still works as it should with your account and if not, we will try a different approach.